Dan Jansen Family Fest's History Dates Back to Namesake's Gold Medal Days

In yesterday's column about Dan Jansen Family Fest, on Greenfield, and especially, its parks and recreation department.

Today, we'll look back at how was started and revisit some of the great things the the non-profit organization has accomplished in honor of its namesake.

The following are excerpts of an application submitted to the Wisconsin Parks and Recreation Association from the Greenfield Parks and Recreation Department for a Partnership Award back in 2009. It's a few years old, but it tells the great story of how Dan Jansen Family Fest came to be.

(I particularly love the part about how it lost money early on. Just shows what determined people can accomplish).

"Dan Jansen, both a Greenfield resident and Olympic speed skater, had just won his Olympic gold medal in 1994, resulting in a city-wide movement to commemorate his great accomplishment in some way, especially because he was from Greenfield.

"At the same time, concerned citizens and the Department of Parks and Recreation were fighting to keep one of the neighborhood parks from being sold to developers. Because of Jansen's "gold medal" performance, the department concluded that Squire Park, located at South 74th Street and West Layton Avenue, was the obvious choice for such a dedication.

"Squire Park was officially renamed in 1994. A small group of people began planning the park dedication which included an almost complete renovation of an old park site, including a refurbished baseball diamond along with red, white and blue bleachers and play equipment. Dan Jansen Park was completed with the placement of an "Olympic Gold" flagpole.

"Because of the overwhelming success of the Dan Jansen Park dedication, this small but dedicated group remained focused on looking for ways to honor this type of accomplishment on an annual basis. The result of many thought-filled meetings was the origination of the Dan Jansen Family Fest, Inc., which was incorporated in the fall of 1995. 

"The committee focused its efforts on providing a community-wide festival at . The main mission was to raise funds to help support the City of Greenfield Department of Parks and Recreation activities as well as other community services. The festival they created would become one of the areas most well-attended and respected family festivals. The impact of the committee's efforts is very much apparent not only in the Greenfield community, but the entire Milwaukee area.

"The early years of the festival were not always the most successful. In fact, the first festival, which was held in the fall of 1995, lost over $9,000. Determined, this group did not give up and continued to show its resolve to make this mission a success.

"Over the next few years, the festival began to gain momentum and Dan Jansen Family Fest showed its first significant profit in 1997. The festival, officially moved to Memorial Day weekend in 1999 ... continues to be a model by which other local and regional festivals operate."